Healthcare

Congressional Republicans and Democrats, as well as President Obama, have an interest in terminating the disincentive effects on employment of the Affordable Care Act. By ending the employer mandate to provide health insurance, employers would be free to hire more full-time employees.

Though the Affordable Care Act is projected by CBO to cost nearly $1.5 trillion over the coming decade, it is important to keep in mind that the Act’s most serious costs might be found not in its price-tag, but in its labor market effects.

I woke up this morning expecting to find the White House website celebrating Healthcare.gov’s first birthday. When I saw no mention, I checked Rep Nancy Pelosi’s website and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s—again, no mentions. Where is the fanfare? Where are the photo ops?

This week marks the launch of Lean Together, a 221-page book that presents an economic agenda for women’s advancement. Hadley Heath Manning, IWF’s director of health policy, said: “The government is telling women that they are not capable of making a wide range of decisions." Stand up, be heard and do things for yourself is the message.

On August 28 the New York Times published a provocative article entitled “Medicare: Not Such a Budget Buster Anymore.” Its thesis was that Medicare no longer poses the budgetary threat it was projected to just a few years ago. However, the financial problems caused by rising Medicare spending are far from solved.